If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Steelers’ rookies got their first taste of the NFL on Friday when the team began their rookie mini-camp.

“It feels good,” said running back Chris Rainey. “It’s still a dream come true. It feels like I am still in the dream. I am looking around thinking is this really the NFL? Yes it is and I am just having a blast.”

The players went through drills in shorts and jerseys in the morning, with temperatures more like those during training camp at St. Vincent College than early May.

“It’s nice to be able to practice and play football again and have a team, a group of guys here,” said guard David DeCastro. “It’s a whole new process. We don’t have helmets on yet. We went through long individual periods and then two short team periods. It was pretty good.”

One thing the rookies did notice is the pace of practice is different from what many of them were used to in college.

“Everything is more up-tempo,” said wide receiver Toney Clemons. “The pace is faster. The preparation for it is different. The drills are different, everything is full speed. They don’t waste time here and they don’t waste reps. You have to make the most of your reps when you get them. That’s the mindset you have to have every practice.

“That is the biggest difference making the transition from a college player trying to be a pro player. If you made mistakes in college they would slow it down, restart periods. But judging how things went here I don’t think they will be doing that. I get to come out here and see what it is like to work like the pros work and do it in a great facility with a great organization.”

The rookies aren’t wasting a minute of time learning their playbook either. A portion was introduced to them before practice and they immediately dove into it, knowing it’s going to take a lot of time to learn it completely.

“It’s something I feel like I can pick up and learn with time, practice and studying,” said Clemons. “You can’t just open it and know it. You have to study it. You have to know more than you knew in college.”

* * *

DeCastro came out to practice wearing a number that one of the great guards in Steelers history wore – Alan Faneca’s No. 66.

“He is one of those guys you looked up to when you were in high school and college and watching him play,” said DeCastro. “I liked the number and wanted to pick it.”

DeCastro, who said he doesn’t feel any added pressure wearing the number as being a number one pick comes with pressure in itself, wouldn’t mind talking to Faneca one day for some advice.

“He would be a pretty good person to talk to,” said DeCastro. “I think he knows what he is doing.”

* * *

One rookie has already talked to a player he looks up to, something he said will help his adjustment to the Steelers.

Troy Polamalu called nose tackle Alameda Ta’amu after he was drafted, welcoming the fellow Samoan to the team.

“He represents a lot of the Polynesians, especially on the West Coast,” said Ta’amu. “When he called me I didn’t think it was really him but then you know his voice from those Head & Shoulders commercials. I was talking to him and it was crazy. I couldn’t believe I was talking to somebody a lot of Samoans look up to. I couldn’t hold it in. I had to tweet it.

“He was talking about if I need anything hit him up. We are brothers. Just having him out here, and especially him calling me, makes me feel better out here.”

I find it interesting that if Lyons is now a TE and at 260, can you imagine him laying blocks with the new O-line for the run game????? Just thinking about the running game being so dominant has me thinking of moving Dwyer up my fanstasy draft rankings.

Tomlin addressing the media after the morning practice (via steelers.com)

Tomlin: We’re having a really good weekend, getting to know these guys, introducing ourselves to these guys, introducing these guys to some of the fundamental things we believe in from a football standpoint. We’re beginning the process of helping them to develop skills that they’re going to need to earn jobs, but largely this is an instructional camp. We’re having a heckuva time, and these guys are working extremely hard.

Q. Does this feel like the official beginning of the 2012 season to you?

A. No. For me it starts when this process starts. Once I start building this group – when you’re down at Mobile (for the Senior Bowl) and things of that nature looking at the next crop of talent, it starts for me at that time.

Q. Having not been able to go through this kind of stuff last year because of the lockout, do you have an appreciation of how much you can get done here in a couple of days?

A. Missing last year has nothing to do with it. I do have an appreciation for this process.

Q. As far as where you are lining guys up this weekend, is it just that you have to start somewhere? Is there anything to be read into certain individuals playing certain spots?

A. You know that we value the concept of position flexibility. You have to start somewhere. These guys who are going to be viable candidates are going to need to have more than one skill-set, and of course we’ll get to a point where we see who’s capable of doing multiple things.

Q. Specifically, when you look at the offensive linemen, Sean Kugler said that was something that was going to sort itself out?

A. Certainly, but we have to start somewhere. Particularly, if you’re talking about the guys drafted early –